eRecording Counties Top 700 Mark

September 27, 2011

The number of counties that are electronically recording documents surpassed 700 during the month of September, according to Richard Bramhall, president of the Property Records Industry Association (PRIA).

Electronic recording (eRecording) is the automated process in a land records office of receipt, examination, fee calculation and payment, endorsing of recording information and return of recorded electronic documents to the submitter.

“Between April 2010 and September 2011, the number of counties committing to the eRecording process increased by 40 percent,” said Linn County (Iowa) Recorder and PRIA Technology Committee Co-chair, Joan McCalmant. “As the PRIA eRecording standards continue to mature, the number of counties leveraging this technology is rapidly expanding.”

According to PRIA’s tracking system, it took from the late 1990s until August 2006 to reach the 200 eRecording counties mark. That number has now more than tripled in the ensuing five years.

“It’s exciting to see so many counties embracing this technology and, along with the technology, the PRIA standards,” said Bramhall.

PRIA, the national standard-setting body for the land records industry, maintains a list of counties that have implemented eRecording technology and posts the list on the association’s Website (www.pria.us). The list includes counties whose implementations have been confirmed by PRIA.

“We are confident the actual number of eRecording counties is higher than what we publish, but the list is limited to those counties that have been accurately verified,” said PRIA Administrative Manager Stevie Hughes Kernick.

The names of the eRecording counties are available to the public, while PRIA members have access to a more detailed list which includes contact information for the counties, as well as the individual county’s technology vendor(s). The list is continually updated by the PRIA administrative staff that works with multiple resources to find and report new eRecording-enabled counties.

“PRIA has worked diligently to develop XML standards and promote industry adoption of this important technology,” saidTechnology Committee Co-chair Kate Teal, Ernst Publishing. “eRecording is experiencing unprecedented success with recorders who have installed the technology. It is also providing a competitive edge to the firms that submit documents to the recorders electronically, as it decreases turnaround time and allows firms to more rapidly complete the transaction process.”